X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Message-ID: <55A5FAB0.8040501@xs4all.nl> Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 08:16:16 +0200 From: "Bert Timmerman (bert DOT timmerman AT xs4all DOT nl) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110429 Fedora/2.0.14-1.fc13 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: [geda-user] PCB interface (ECAD vs. MCAD) References: <76520AC3-3E8D-4F80-A912-AB076DD8D0C6 AT icloud DOT com> <1670171546 DOT 913210 DOT 1436776811789 DOT JavaMail DOT yahoo AT mail DOT yahoo DOT com> <79456AAA-24A9-4300-900D-005ABBCFCBDA AT icloud DOT com> <60F3B5BC-EC05-41FE-BAF7-B2A14B4392EC AT icloud DOT com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Evan Foss (evanfoss AT gmail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com] wrote: > On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 1:03 PM, Vaclav Peroutka (vaclavpe AT seznam DOT cz) > [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com] wrote: > >> However it nearly always has some kind of panel mounting. When I start a >> layout, I nearly always want to start with the mechanical components, to >> say: distribute these switches/LEDS between here and here, on 20mm centres. >> This is trivial with 2D MCAD, but cumbersome with PCB. >> >> >> Good idea. All profesional flows start with "mechanical" design of PCB - >> mounting holes, connectors, LEDs, switches etc. These footprints must not be >> touched later. Then placement and layout of all non-mechanical components >> > I like this a lot. Could we use a library that already exists to > import dxf or something? Most of my projects for work do start this > way. I do have some where the prototyping and etc are more important > than a case. > > >> Another question - is there any process of pre-placement in PCB ? Somehow to >> extract positions from SCH file and load it to PCB - footprints will be >> moved to similar places like in schematic. >> > I vaguely recall someone talking about it. I don't think it ever got > to a fit to ship state obviously. > > Hi Evan, I started a project named "libdxf" years ago, still in alpha (version < 0.01), may not be of any use yet, only got a handful of contributors in the span of several years, a bit of a "commit-and-run" experience, the repo resides at github.com. Another DXF related project I did years ago was to create a DXF exporter for pcb, now bit rotting away in some topic branch in my pcb github sandbox, there is a Launchpad bug report with outdated patches lingering around too. If nobody picks stuff like this, if nobody does a test drive, if nobody tweaks here and there, if nobody sends in a patch or two ... these kind of features never make it it to the main stream. Kind regards, Bert Timmerman.